Archive for the ‘Kia’ Category

Kia cars get refreshed so often, sometimes it is hard to keep track. But if yo are a fan of the Optima, there are a couple of new ones available now to order in the UK. The 2019 Kia Optima Saloon and Optima Sportswagon comes with refreshed styling, upgraded trim levels, and new equipment.

The new line of Optimas are powered in the UK with the new U3 1.6 liter diesel engine. It generates 134bhp and 320Nm of torque, and offers a nice compromise between performance and fuel efficiency. The 2019 Kia Optima has a 0-60mph acceleration time of 10.8 seconds and a top speed of 121mph. That is with the manual gearbox. There is also a 7-speed DCT which is a tad slower and does worse in terms of fuel economy, but they both do 60+ mpg and emit no more than 122 g/km of CO2.

The automatic version of the 2019 Kia Optima and Optima Sportswagon benefit from Drive Mode Selector lets Optima drivers switch between Eco, Comfort, Sport and Smart. The Saloon comes in 2 & 3 trim grades, while the Sportswagon also has a GT-Line model. The list of standard features is pretty long: 7.0-inch touchscreen satellite navigation system with European mapping and a reversing camera, steering wheel-mounted controls, front and rear USB ports, dual automatic air conditioning, a leather-trimmed steering wheel and gearshift, cruise control with a speed limiter, electrically heated folding mirrors, a six-speaker DAB radio with MP3 compatibility and Bluetooth with music streaming. It has 17-inch alloy wheels, body-coloured door handles and mirrors, projection headlights with LED daytime running lights, powered two-way driver’s seat lumbar adjustment, black cloth seats and remote central locking with a fold-away key, while the comprehensive safety provisions include Electronic Stability Control and Vehicle Stability Management, Hill-start Assist Control, Tyre Pressure Monitoring and an electronic parking brake, plus parking sensors and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto.

Once Top Gear’s reasonably priced car, the Kia Ceed is a family hatchbacks the Brits are fond of the same way they’re fond of a Labrador. It’s cute, cuddly, benign, and just a good companion. The same goes for the latest 2019 Kia Ceed which has dropped its apostrophe. It’s just Ceed now, not cee’d.

Boasting a sharper look than all of its predecessors, and pretty much all of its main rivals, the 2019 Kia Ceed benefits from the company’s latest design trends such as an aggressive tiger nose grille and wide and low-hanging bumpers, while maintaining the car’s own signature cues like the ‘ice cube’ LED daytime running. The car is also physically bigger and has more room inside, and rides on bigger 16-inch aluminium alloy wheels, or 17-inch two-tone diamond cut aluminium alloy wheels.

One of the coolest parts of the 2019 Kia Ceed is the interior which is inspired by the Stinger gran turismo. The main highlight is the ‘floating’ touchscreen infotainment system with the controls for audio and heating and ventilation located in lower half of the dashboard. You get decent quality too, what with soft touch material, metallic or satin chrome trim, and cloth, faux leather or genuine leather upholstery. Depending on the trim, you get stuff like navigation, smartphone interface, JBL audio system, Drive Mode Select, High Beam Assist (HBA), Driver Attention Warning (DAW), Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) and Forward Collision Warning with Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist – City (FCA).

Engine-wise, the 2019 Ceed launches with engineered-for-UK powertrains, including the 1.0-litre T-GDi and ‘Kappa’ 1.4-litre T-GDi whcih replaces the old 1.6 unit, plus a ‘U3’ 1.6-litre CRDi diesel unit. Every engine is paired with a six-speed manual transmission, while the 1.4-litre T-GDi and 1.6-litre CRDi engines are also available with Kia’s seven-speed Dual-Clutch Transmission (DCT).

The significantly upgraded 2019 Kia Sportage hits the UK market with high hopes of continuing the success of its predecessors. With a sophisticated look, enhanced in the latest version with small, exquisite details, and a new mild-hybrid engine, the Sportage has really upped its game. And, we’re glad to report, it still maintains its biggest strength: value for money.

Starting at around 20 grand, the 2019 Kia Sportage all-new EcoDynamics+ 48V diesel mild-hybrid powertrain, the first of 16 such units to be launched by 2025. It complements a range that also includes a 1.6 T-GDi, 1.6 CRDi, 1.6 U3, and 2.0 CRDi 48V options. They come, depending on the model, either a six-speed manual or 7-speed DCT, and on select models AWD as well. So as before, you can’t expect the capabilities of a full offroader from the Sportage, but it can get the job done getting you across a field or a country road.

In terms of design that highlights of the new 2019 Kia Sportage include gloss black or bright chrome inserts, a revised tiger nose grille, new full-LED headlamps with four-point LED daytime running lights and redesigned fog lamps, new C-shaped LED light signature at the back and new 16-, 17- and 19-inch alloy wheel designs. The GT Line model gets its own gloss black radiator grille, gloss black and silver skid plates, and dark chrome inserts on the front bumper, the side sills and rear tailgate.

Below is the full price list for every UK-spec 2019 Kia Sportage. Consult your dealer about the standard and available features for each model:

Kia’s electric cars are coming full force, as evidenced with the release of the Kia Niro EV in the Korean market. This is the prelude to the electric crossover’s launch in the European market before the end of 2018, after it gets its official welcome at the Paris Motor Show, of course.

Just like their normal cars, you can expect plenty of value from Kia and Hyundai electric models. They may have been a bit late to the game, but that’s because they have been perfecting their game before coming out to play. So wit the Kia Niro EV you get an excellent range of 280 miles (450 kilometres) on a single charge, a figure that blows most of the competition in this segment out of the water. The same goes for the equipment and the yet-to-be-confirmed pricing.

In terms of performance Kia Niro EV has a 150 kW (204 ps) motor, producing 395 Nm torque the moment you engage it, resulting in a 0 to 100 km/h time of 7.8 seconds. Another encouraging figure about this car is the fast-charging time, which takes only 54 minutes. Kia is going to offer different battery packs, meaning there will be smaller packs with less range that charge up even quicker, so you can pick and choose based on your needs. And don’t worry about practicality and space, because the batteries are fitted neatly under the floor.

The design of the Kia Niro differs in key details from the regular and hybrid models, but not to the extent of making the car look alien. It comes with its own crisp colors including white, grey, bronze, red, green, and blue,and gets an EV-specific 7″ infotainment featuring relevant info such as nearby charging points and the level of charge and range remaining from the battery pack. Needless to say, you get the latest tech features as well, including a wireless smartphone charger.

It looks like the automakers and law enforcers are equally serious about each other now. We recently saw Ford with the first ever pursuit-rated hybrid SUV, and now, the Australian Police Department has acquired a fleet of Kia Stingers for highway patrolling. The Fleet is set to replace the Ford Falcons and the Holden Commodores in the PD’s. One-fourth of the 200 cars have already started patrolling the streets of Queensland, and the rest will be added in the near future.

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the arrival of the Kia Proceed, and new spy shots of the sporty GT model has given rise to more speculation that the five-door fastback model is getting closer to its launch date. Kia hasn’t confirmed when that’s going to be, but all signs point to the 2018 Paris Motor Show in October. If that ends up being the case, these spy photos of the five-door Proceed are arriving at just the right time.

Kia is on a roll these days, running high on the success of its recent launches. From the Stinger sedan, to the luxurious K900, to the Niro EV, Kia is delivering powerful performances in all the segments. The latest scoop suggests that the Kia Telluride is about ready for production and will debut by the end of this year.

As they promised a few days ago, Kia is launching a new series of mild-hybrid powertrains, beginning with a diesel. This engine will be make its debut in the new Kia Sportage Mild-Hybrid Diesel, set to go on sale in European markets from the third quarter of 2018.

The EcoDynamic+ 48V diesel mild-hybrid powertrain featured in this SUV comprises a new 2.0-litre ‘R’ diesel and a 48 Volt battery, hence the name Kia Sportage Mild-Hybrid. While the performance figures for this system are yet to be revealed, Kia has confirmed the output of the new 1.6 U3 diesel engine which replaces the old 1.7 unit in the range. It comes in two editions, with 115 or 136ps, with higher-powered models available with all-wheel drive and seven-speed double-clutch transmission, and it’s EU6 compatible in terms of emissions.

Along with the new powertrain the 2019 Kia Sportage Mild-Hybrid benefits from some design upgrades as well. Mild revisions have been applied to the bumpers and lights, and you get new 16-, 17- and 19-inch alloy wheel designs as well as chrome sill trim and metallic skid plates, plus five new paint colours. The GT-Line shows the full effect of these upgrades with a gloss black hot-stamped radiator grille, a gloss black and silver skid plate, and dark chrome inserts on the side sills and rear tailgate.

Inside the cabin the 2019 Sportage features a new steering wheel and revised instrument cluster, as well as new black-and-grey two-tone upholstery. In terms of equipment and technology features, you can expect Smart Cruise Control with Stop&Go, an Around View Monitor, and 7 or 8 inch infotainment systems.

Between the Volkswagen Emission Scandal and so many other automakers cooking their emissions figures like an accountant for the Mob, the future of diesel looks bleak. Some automakers are trying to save them while others are starting to venture away from them. After all, electric cars are the future, right? Well, be that as it may, Kia is betting on diesel to stay around a little longer and even claims it can cut emissions by as much as seven percent on the NEDC cycle thanks to a new 48-volt mild-hybrid drivetrain.

Car makers are constantly trying these days to eke out the last remnants of life out of the internal combustion engine before consigning them to the history books. One of the latest tricks is to add a small battery to the whole thing, turning a regular ICE into something that is called a mild-hybrid system. Many have done this with petrol units, now Kia wants to try it with diesel.

Kia calls their mild-hybrid diesel the ‘EcoDynamics+’ powertrain and they will be putting it first in a version of the Sportage later this year, followed by the Ceed in 2019. The system features a 0.46 kWh 48-volt lithium-ion battery and a new Mild-Hybrid Starter-Generator (MHSG) that works both ways in that it helps reducing the diesel’s already excellent fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and it gives better acceleration to the car by supplementing the engine’s output. Kia makes the case for the mild-hybrid by reminding people that “no plug-in recharging required” with this powertrain.

The diesel unit is an innovative solution to keep this fuel relevant for a few more years. The EcoDynamics+ system comes with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) active emissions control technology to ensure cleaner operation. The mild-hybrid powertrains – yes, there is more coming with petrol engine as well as diesel – are the base of Kia’s electrification ambitions. Kia plans to launch 16 advanced powertrain vehicles by 2025, including five new hybrids, five plug-in hybrids, five battery-electric vehicles and a new fuel-cell electric vehicle in 2020.

As any marketing person will tell you, building brand recognition is critical to a company’s success. To this end, automakers have a number of strategies to create awareness with customers, including the implementation of a specific design language across a lineup. As such, it appears as though Kia has their “look” set in stone.

Electrification of cars, today, is not just an “offering”; it’s a necessity. While there are some automakers who arrived late to the party (cough… DS… cough), there are also a few who took steps years ago. Kia embarked on the EV mission with the Soul EV which has been a runaway success over the years. Kia introduced the Niro EV at the ongoing
’5th International Electric Car Expo’,. This wholesome package garnered a lot of attention for its looks and features. Can the Niro EV take the electric crossover segment by storm? Let’s find out.

Previewed by a concept car at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Kia Niro EV was unveiled as a production model at the International Electric Car Expo in South Korea. As expected, the electric crossover is a mildly revised version of the conventional Niro styling-wise.

Two months ago, Kia confirmed what many of has have been thinking for quite some time. The Telluride Concept that the automaker showed at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show would be turned into a production model. Building off of that announcement, Kia has now confirmed that the production model will look a lot like the concept version from two years ago. More importantly, the Telluride’s “look” will also shape the design of Kia’s other crossovers and SUVs, including the Soul,Sportage, and Sorento.

The Kia Proceed Concept turned a lot of heads at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. Initially thought of as a design study to determine the design direction of the next-generation Ceed, the positive reception surrounding the concept forced Kia to rethink its initial plans for the car. A production version is now in the works, and word on the street is that it will make its debut at the 2018 Paris Motor Show this October.

One of the things we like about Japanese tuner Liberty Walk is that they are not picky. They work on anything, from Toyota 86 to McLaren 650S and beyond. So it is only a matter of time before we get a Liberty Walk Kia Stinger. That is why we thought you may want to have an early look at what that thing may look like in these renderings.

Granted, the designer has gone to the extreme lowering and widening the Stinger in these renderings. But a full-on Liberty Walk Kia Stinger is going to have pretty much the same features. It’ll have massive overfenders with those iconic visible rivets. It will indeed be bagged with air suspension and dropped right to the ground. And it will probably boast over-sized aero parts as you see on this imaginary cars here.

The one thing from these designs the real LB Stinger may not feature is the extreme camber of the wheels. Not that Liberty Walk is above playing such tricks to make their creations eye-popping. The truth is, that kind of camber does not work on a car like the stinger, which is in essence a four-door saloon. Such a treatment would be more fitting on a sports car, preferably a Japanese one.

In any case, we quite like the look of these ultra wide Stingers, especially the matte black one. This is something one could reasonably expect to see at next year’s SEMA show.

If you ask us, the new technology of wireless charging is more of a miracle than Moses parting the sea. For one thing, the former is real, and you can now have it in smartphones and cars. Even something like the Kia Soul EV, which isn’t a fancy expensive car by any stretch of the imagination, could be equipped with this system.

Well, it can’t yet, but very soon we will see applications of this technology on production electric cars form Kia and Hyundai. It hasn’t been easy equipping the Kia Soul EV with fast wireless charging capability, It has been a three-prong venture by Kia America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI), Mojo Mobility, Inc. (Mojo), and U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The system they have come up with, and successfully tested on five Soul EVs, is a compact wireless charging system that is capable of transferring more than 10 kW to the vehicle. It also boasts an 85 percent grid-to-vehicle efficiency which means there is very little waste of energy involved. And in case you thought this was witchcraft, here’s an extremely simplified explanation of how it works: “the system works by using an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two coils—a transmitter on the ground and a receiver on the bottom of the vehicle.” You just park the car above the transmitter and voila, you get charged up.

“We’re thrilled with the success of the system and its efficiency,” said William Freels, HATCI President. “We set out to develop wireless charging that has real world applications and is easy to use for the consumer. Now, with this fleet of wireless Soul EVs, we can clearly see a future of unplugged electric vehicles.”

If you ask us, the new technology of wireless charging is more of a miracle than Moses parting the sea. For one thing, the former is real, and you can now have it in smartphones and cars. Even something like the Kia Soul EV, which isn’t a fancy expensive car by any stretch of the imagination, could be equipped with this system.

Well, it can’t yet, but very soon we will see applications of this technology on production electric cars form Kia and Hyundai. It hasn’t been easy equipping the Kia Soul EV with fast wireless charging capability, It has been a three-prong venture by Kia America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI), Mojo Mobility, Inc. (Mojo), and U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The system they have come up with, and successfully tested on five Soul EVs, is a compact wireless charging system that is capable of transferring more than 10 kW to the vehicle. It also boasts an 85 percent grid-to-vehicle efficiency which means there is very little waste of energy involved. And in case you thought this was witchcraft, here’s an extremely simplified explanation of how it works: “the system works by using an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two coils—a transmitter on the ground and a receiver on the bottom of the vehicle.” You just park the car above the transmitter and voila, you get charged up.

“We’re thrilled with the success of the system and its efficiency,” said William Freels, HATCI President. “We set out to develop wireless charging that has real world applications and is easy to use for the consumer. Now, with this fleet of wireless Soul EVs, we can clearly see a future of unplugged electric vehicles.”

Kia is looking into the viability of more of its vehicles all-wheel drive as demand for the system grows. Unlike in the past, more customers are now looking for the increased grip that an AWD system provides, and when that kind of demand increases, an automaker like Kia has to listen. Among the models being eyed to get standard AWD in the future include the Optima sedan, the Sedona minivan, and Niro crossover. No decision has been made yet, but Kia is looking at it as a possibility now that customers have become more vocal in their desire to see them on the Kia models that they buy.